At the end of 2008 I saw at Sperone Westwater, a New York City gallery, a museum-like show called “Zero in New York“. It was a survey of works created between 1957 and 1966 by members of the Zero group, the most famous member being Yves Klein. Zero was a progressive art movement that revolutionized Post-War art and led to the formation of the Post-War Avant-Garde. I am sure that this show was a key-exhibit for New York, since shortly thereafter Gagosian opened another museum-quality retrospective on the Italian member Manzoni. To reach this level of a Zero show, it is hard to avoid to include works from the vast private collection of Gerhard and Anneliese Lenz (Lenz Schönberg Collection).
The Zero movement was initiated around 1958 by two Düsseldorf-based artists, Heinz Mack and Otto Piene and developed a collaborative relationship between groups of artists in Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland. In describing the meaning and significance of the name “Zero”, Otto Piene wrote:
‘From the beginning we looked upon the term [Zero] not as an expression of nihilism – or as a dada-like gag, but as a word indicating a zone of silence and of pure possibilities for a new beginning as the count-down when rockets take off – ZERO is the incommensurable zone in which the old state turns into the new.’
As I found out the ‘Lenz Schönberg Collection’ started acquiring works in 1958 and count now 50 artists of mostly Zero in their collection of 600 works. ‘After the war the artists wanted to do something completely new. We found that interesting. (..) ‘ says Anneliese Lenz.
‘At some point, my husband ended up in an Evening-exhibition by Otto Piene in Düsseldorf and was horrified, devastated. He said that he would not be able to visit a museum again for several years. Then came the first painting by Jef Verheyen. My husband identified himself so much with the painting that he said “this is it”. (..) My husband had never read anything about the period, and simply collected works according to his gut feeling. Even the feeling for quality is completely intuitive. He did not let anyone else tell him what to buy.’
Gerhard and Anneliese Lenz built in Tyrol “Hof Schoenberg” a home for themselves and their collection, where they displayed fire-paintings and blue, red and gold large monochromes by Yves Klein, nail-paintings by Guenter Ueckers, punctured metal sheets and canvases by Lucio Fontana and many others.
‘A private collection that has been shown twelve times in Europe is not a very common, or rather, is a very rare event.(..) We would like to live with our art. Therefore it should not be hung in a museum that we have to visit in order to see our collection. In the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg, my husband said that he could imagine setting up his bed and his desk there, and living there. That has happened in the past. Whenever our works have been displayed, we have gone to visit our “children” ‘.
‘We were not collectors at the beginning. As Yves Klein once said, suddenly you realise that you are a painter. And one day we realised that we were collectors. Today, due to the economic boom, the word “collector” now has negative overtones; today you do not really want to be known as a collector.’
Zero artists aimed to banish any trace of a personal style and instead bring elements of the non-art world into their work. Informed by new materials and technologies, and incorporating elements of light, fire, and water, Zero was characterized by an idealistic spirit of collaboration in pursuit of new concepts of light, movement, and energy. Working in an environment without galleries and contemporary art spaces, these artists came together to exhibit their work in a series of one-evening-only exhibitions, often staged in their studios. Manifestos were often published in association with the shows, such as “Zero 1” (1958), “Zero 2” (1958), and “Zero 3” (1961).
German “Zero”: Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Gunther Uecker.
Dutch “Nul”: Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven, Armando and Jan Henderikse.
Italy: Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani and Nanda Vigo.
France: Arman, Francois Morellet and Yves Klein.
Switzerland: Daniel Spoerri, Christian Megert and kinetic sculptures by Jean Tinguely.
“Zero in New York” (1957-1966)
Please refer to the gallery for inquiries, catalog and prices. Photographs courtesy of the gallery.
Sperone Westwater
415 West 13 Street, New York, NY 10014, Tel + 1 212 999 7337
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